INTIMIDATION OF BLACK VOTERS OR
LEGIT VOTE FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Last week, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, Bob Herbert, wrote that an investigation into vote-fraud in Florida focused on only elderly black voters. He noted the sinister connections involved, that "officers, from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to Gov. Jeb Bush" were conducting a "random" sample that just happened to include only old black folks. He warned that the "long and ugly tradition of suppressing the black vote is alive and thriving in the Sunshine State."

So, I wondered what The New York Times's news desk was doing with the story, but I've been unable to find any reporters, who generally have more exacting fact-checking and sourcing standards, following up on Herbert's allegations that the "vile smell of voter suppression is all over this so-called investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement." If you find a follow up in the national press, please let me know.

Searching the Internet, I only found one article that did anything more than quote from Herbert's story and rage against the Bush Bros. conspiracy to disenfranchise voters. And it provides additional links.

In it, you will discover some more detail than Bob Herbert gave you, including the reality that the elderly black voters were selected at random from a universe of 264 questionable absentee ballots -- all witnessed by the same Democrat activist, who had chosen to sign up, you guessed it, elderly black voters. So the activist chose the race and age of the voters, not Florida law enforcement. You'll also discover a similar investigation into the activities of a mostly white organization as well. Bob Herbert didn't mention the white folks.

Certainly it should be a concern if it is shown that Governor Bush is using the power of law enforcement to keep Democratic voters away from the polls. And it should be a concern if some people, like Bob Herbert, Paul Krugman and Terry McAuliffe are trying to preemptively undermine the legitimacy of any result by distorting facts to present a particularly sinister picture. In the former case, legal action can rectify the problem, in the latter, the long term damage to our democracy could be catastrophic. And if vote fraud is allowed to succeed and cannot be investigated because of demogoguery, then our experiment in democratic government will have failed.